Her Hips Don't Lie

Pitcher Brooke Turner pitching
in a home game this season.
Photo courtesy of 49er Athletics 

At the beginning of the 2010 LBSU Softball season, pitcher Brooke Turner was recovering from elbow surgery and this season she is recovering from hip surgery that she had in the fall. The surgery was to repair a torn labrum in her hip.

The tear involves “the ring of soft elastic tissue, the labrum, that follows the outside rim of the socket of your hip joint,” as described by a hip tear article on Mayo Clinic. A symptom that athletes feel is a catching sensation in their hip along with hip pain as an indicator of an injury.

The labrum is found in both the shoulder and the hip joint but more information has been known about shoulder injuries. Recent developments of arthroscopic techniques to surgically manage the hip joint, “there has been increased recognition and awareness of hip labral tears,” said an article about Labral Tear of Hip Joint on about.com.

There are two ways a hip injury could happen and the way Turner’s injury happened was because of a saddening twisting motions that cause pain in the hip known as tramatic hip labral tear as defined on about.com.  A common motion of a pitcher is the twisting motion as they wind up to pitch the ball.

"We're going to take it day by day and see if she's ready," Coach Kim Sowder told the Daily49er. “I have confidence that she will be fine.”

Head, Shoulders, Knees... oh no!

A common theme when it comes to injures is that they are caused from overuse. The repetitive motion that a single joint does over and over during a practice or game can end up doing more damage on your body that you think.

Senior Courtney Jacob shoots a
three pointer in a game against Fullerton.
Photo credit Long Beach State Athletics

Knee injuries are no different.  Knee pain is usually the result of overuse, poor form during physical activity, not warming up or cooling down, or inadequate stretching as mentioned on the Medline Plus page about knee pain. Senior basketball player, Courtney Jacobs, knows all about knee injuries.

Jacob’s knee pain started when she was in high school and felt an aggravating pain in her right knee which turned out to that she severely damaged the cartilage leading her to have microfracture surgery.  Microfracture surgery is a procedure where doctors insert a long thin device called an arthroscope that has an attached camera allowing the surgeon to see inside the knee and work directly on the joint area said an article about microfrature surgery on Medline Plus.  This surgery happens when there are small amounts of cartilage damage on the underside of the kneecap and helps people avoid the need for partial or full knee replacements.

Medline Plus also mentions that a risk for microfracture surgery is that the new cartilage made in the surgery is not as strong as the body’s original cartilage and my break down after a few years.  The patient may also experience increased stiffness in the knee after the surgery.

"I knew I wanted to [come back and play]," Jacob told the Daily49er. "But my physical capability of being able to come back was definitely tested.

Another knee injury keep Jacob on the sidelines most of the 2009-10 season. This time it was the left knee and a similar injury and surgery as the right knee. Full recovery after surgery takes about three to five months and rehab is a critical part in making a full recovery said an article on Sports injury info.

"There were a lot of nights where I was like, ‘I don't know if I'm going to be able to do it,'"said Jacob.

After many months of rehabilitation, a few road blocks, and a specialist in Los Angeles, Jacobs was able to get back out on the court for her last season and helped her team move up three spots in conference standings. 

Shoulder Separation

All sorts of different arm injuries happen to baseball and softball players. For Dirtbag freshman Michael Hill, he is still recovering from a partial shoulder separation that he injured in the preseason.

Freshman Michael Hill
Photo curtisy of
Long Beach State Athletics

Shoulder separations are not the same as a shoulder dislocation. “A shoulder separation occurs when a sharp blow or a fall causes the collarbone to be forced away from the bone of the shoulder,” said in an article about shoulder separations on eMedicineHealth.

Once the injury has been diagnosed, the most important thing to do next is learn what to do to recover from the injury the best. The hardest thing for athletes to do in the recovery process it to rest yet it is an essential part of the recovery process so that they can allow the damaged tissues to heal. Other things that can be done to help heal the injured shoulder is to use ice to reduce the swelling and to wear a sling to take pressure off the joint stated in an article on about.com.

Hill is now back on the field and helping the team although he has not fully recovered from his injury.  Dirtbag’s head coach Troy Buckley talked to the Daily49er about Hill’s return.

“It’s nice to see [Hill],” said Buckley, who added that he could see more playing time. In Hill’s first game back he played well delivering a pinch hit and a two-run double as documented in the Daily49er. 

Brace Yourself!

Finding an easy solution to your problems is what most people like to do, athletes included. Injuries can range in severity, from minor just needing a little ice and you’re back the next day to major where you are out for weeks going to physical therapy or even having surgery to help fix the injury.

For some injuries, braces can be seen as that quick fix for an injury. But do they help you heal? What do braces really do for you?

Volleyball player is able to play while wearing a
a supportive knee brace.
Photo from physical therapy products 

Braces have two primary uses; worn as a preventative device or as a rehabilitation or treatment device as mentioned in an article about ankle braces.  When using a brace for preventative measures you’ll want to wear your brace while performing an activity that may put you at risk of injuring your ankle or knee.  Ankle patents should wear a brace during sports such as tennis, basketball and volleyball whereas knee injury patents should where the brace when playing contact sports such as football.

Depending on the severity of your injury, depends on the type of brace that you use.  Doctors may suggest a certain type of brace for support after surgery and a different brace for strengthening the knee when exercises aren’t able to strengthen the knee.  

Communications major, Alicia Van Bourg, talks about the use of knee braces after she had surgery on her knees.  “I had a custom brace made to be used right after surgery because of my hyper flexibility,” said Van Bourg. “I use it when I work out, if I feel at all unstable or if I will be doing something that would make my knees vulnerable, like running or climbing.”

Some people are afraid that braces my actually increase the number of injuries an athlete mentioned in an article on familydoctor.com.  Intramural basketball player Zeke Lyons, 21, has similar feelings about braces after he hurt his ankle playing in a basketball game. “I’ll wear an ankle brace while I play until its better, but worry that if I wear them all the time it will make my ankles weak,” Lyons said. 

Round and Round She Throws!

The softball season in now in full swing and so is senior pitcher Brooke Turner, but she wasn’t last season. Turner was experiencing some elbow pain so during the off season she underwent surgery to repair her right elbow.

Pitcher Brooke Turner pitches a
fast ball during a home game.
photo by Tracy McDannald

The pain Turner was feeling in her elbow is known as Little League Elbow and is caused from overuse. This injury is seen predominately in pitchers because of the repetitive throwing motion of pitching the ball.  Repetitive pitching puts a stress on the growth plate, causing it to become inflamed and irritated as described by the Institute of Sports Medicine.

In late August, Turner had surgery on her right elbow due to pain she started experiencing her senior year of high school and got worse during the years.

“I’m not 100 percent yet, but my arm feels fine,” Turner told the Daily49er. “I’m excited to get back on the field. I’ve been throwing for the last month or two so I feel good.”

Most pitchers don’t have to undergo surgery, but since Turner continued to pitch through the pain, her injury could not be healed on physical therapy alone.  One of the best ways to prevent this injury from happening is allowing your arm the proper amount of rest.  If the arm hasn’t been able to rest enough, that is when the injury could worsen. 

Dribbling to Europe

No matter how healthy you are or how ambitious you may be, injuries are always a concern in the back of athletes heads and may cause a road block in a goal you are trying to achieve.

For international student-athlete, Elle Clark, a freshman basketball player from London, an injury on the court is not going to stop her from making her dreams come true.  Clark will be trying out for two British national women’s basketball team this summer as mentioned in the daily49er.  She has previously played on the England Junior team since 2006 and led the team to a division championship last summer.  This summer she hopes to play on two teams despite recovering from a high ankle sprain.

Freshman forward, Elle Clark, takes a
breather in the middle of a game
photo by Steven Carcano

"I hope to make the [under-20] team and play more minutes than I did last year [while I was on the junior national team]," Clark said. "I should be a role player on the team, so hopefully that will lead to me getting selected for the World University Games, which [starts] a month afterwards."

Clark has been battling an ankle injury since the end of the season in early March. Ankle injuries are common in basketball players and can be treated. Unfortunately, high ankle sprains are harder to fully recover from than a more common ankle sprain. High ankle sprains usually happen when an ankle rolls outward beyond its normal range of motion and tears the ligament between the tibia and fibula bones as mentioned in an article All About High Ankle Sprains.

“In a high ankle sprain, the ligaments that connect the two lower leg bones together are injured,” explains M. Ramin Modabber, MD, of the Santa Monica Orthopaedic and Sports Medicine Group. Modabber continued to describe the injury saying that because of the higher location on the leg, it creates a more severe injury which then requires more time to recover before the athlete is able to fully play again. It can take weeks or months to fully recover from the ankle sprain.

Clarks training has been limited due to her injury, yet she still manages to work out about eight hours week training in preparation for the upcoming try outs. LBSU head coach Jody Wynn said, “It’s just nice to see her  progress in earning this opportunity… We’ll keep our fingers crossed that she makes the squads.”

Ouch, That Hurt!

Most times when you think about concussions you think of them happening to football players, yet concussions happen to all athletes during all different sports. A concussion is a “traumatic brain injury that alters the way your brain functions. Effects are usually temporary, but can include problems with headache, concentration, memory, judgment, balance and coordination,” stated as the definition on MayoClinic.

Marjama ducking away from pitch
in a game against UC Davis.
photo by Nick Wilson for Daily 49er

With baseball season in full swing now, we are seeing players at risk of getting a concussion. Mike Marjama, junior and Dirtbag third baseman, ducked out of way of a pitch headed for his head during a game verses UC Davis, which could’ve ended much differently. Pitchers are able to throw a ball with speeds up to 90 miles per hour and a helmet cannot always protect a player.

A famous incident of a baseball player suffering a concussion after being hit in the head from a pitch was in 2009 when New York Met’s David Wright was hit by a 93-mph fastball.  Since concussions have become a predominate issue in Major League Baseball, they are mandating that players who experience a concussion be placed on a seven-day disabled list “since symptoms are often resolved in five to seven days,” said in an article from the Los Angeles Times.

Met's player, David Wright, is hit in the head by a fastball.
photo by David Pokress

Concussions usually occur in athletes who play contact sports, like football or soccer, but that doesn’t mean that athletes who play other sports, like baseball or volleyball, are exempt from getting a concussion. Janisa Johnson, volleyball outside hitter, got a concussion when she fell down while getting a flu shot, as noted in an article from the Daily49er. Either you are on the playing field or living everyday life, you are at risk of a concussion. We need to be careful and take care of our bodies.